Troy showed resiliency in rallying from a third-quarter deficit to beat Nicholls in its season-opener, but head coach Gerad Parker said Monday he knows such an effort won't be good enough in Week 2.
The Trojans (1-0) travel to meet Clemson (0-1) on Saturday afternoon at the stadium known as "Death Valley." Troy has a history of playing well against power-conference opponents -- upsetting LSU in 2017 and Nebraska in 2018 and playing close against schools such as Clemson (a 30-24 loss in 2016) and Iowa (a 38-21 loss last season in which the Trojans trailed 24-21 heading into the fourth quarter).
However, this Tigers team is a completely different animal, Parker said.
"We'll build on what we can and the history of what Troy historically has done and discuss those things, and then obviously be truthful as well, but this roster is loaded," Parker said. "This is a different roster than the team we played at Iowa and certainly anything that we've played since I've been here and even better than some of the Clemson teams I've been a part of when I've played as an assistant coach. So we have our hands full.
"Our players will know that and understand that turning the film on, but we'll certainly celebrate also us going to go compete and do what our program stands for in doing so and make sure and push to our players as we prepare for them."
Despite Clemson having suffered a season-opening loss to LSU last Saturday night, Troy is a 33.5-point underdog on Saturday. Among other players, Dabo Swinney's Tigers boast at least four future NFL first-round draft picks in quarterback Cade Klubnik, defensive linemen Peter Woods and T.J. Parker and cornerback Avieon Terrell.
Clemson is likely to be without wide receiver Antonio Williams -- another potential first-round pick who suffered a hamstring injury -- on Saturday. That's small consolation for Parker, who continued to be wowed by what he watched on tape.
"They have a defense as good a defense as I've seen on tape in my career," Parker said. "... The talent disparity and the talent they have up and down their roster looks like a top five program in the country, which it is. So that bodes itself a huge issue.
"Then you throw in crowd noise in the environment, and you've got to practice that with it. So we'll do our part on offense to give our guys the proper crowd noise and things that it's going to take to operate with cadence so we don't inflict things on ourselves that will already be hard enough. So you've got both issues you've got to challenge yourself in, and this is why we coach and compete. If Troy will be Troy, I expect our guys to really look forward to going into that type of environment and competing and seeing what we're made of."
For much of last week's game vs. Nicholls, Troy looked like anything but the program that has been of consistent quality over the years. The Trojans fell behind 17-7 early in the third quarter before rallying to outscore the Colonels 31-10 down the stretch -- including 28-3 in the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Goose Crowder was efficient and effective in his return from an injury-marred 2024, throwing for three touchdowns and running for another. Running back Tae Meadows -- pressed into action following a season-ending injury to Trey Cooley -- rushed for 186 yards and another score.
"I'll say it was the leadership," receiver Roman Mothershed said of the Trojans' comeback vs. Nicholls. "Even though we were down, played messy at first, we knew if we want this, we've gotta come together, and that's what we did.
"... We knew penalties was our enemy at first. Troy beating Troy, basically. So once we're dimming down on the mistakes, dimming down on the penalties, I feel like we'll be a real good team as a group, not just offense or defense."
Saturday's Troy-Clemson game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. and will be televised by ACC Network.